As NASA Reveals Stunning Images, Antarctica Had Record Low Sea-Ice Coverage In 2017

Fairfax - Charles Goodsir

NASA has released stunning photos of the Antarctic ice caps after its most recent expeditions last year.
However, Antarctica had a record-low sea ice coverage of 6.61 million square kilometres in 2017, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its latest report.

Snow and ice on the Creswick Peaks. The light blue areas on the cliff face indicate melting.  Photo: Nathan Kurtz / NASA / Earth Observatory

In November last year, NASA conducted two missions as part of its Operation IceBridge, which is in its ninth year of flights to map the snow and ice of Antarctica.
On November 4, the IceBridge team flew its "Endurance West" mission, which specifically targets sea ice.
Then, on November 12, a high-priority mission was conducted over the Larsen C Ice Shelf, as it had been significantly reshaped a few months earlier after it shed an iceberg that measured 5060 square kilometres.

During each flight, nearly 8000 photographs were taken, which revealed several large fractures in the ice.
The largest crevice, which measured 21 kilometres long and 11 kilometres wide, was sighted in between the Dyer Plateau and George VI Sound ice caps.
The Dyer Plateau was among the worst affected areas. Several fractures were seen with navy blue coloured areas, which is seawater.

Sheets of ice breaking up and melting in the George VI Sound Ice Shelf.  Photo: NASA / Earth Observatory

Further, the ice caps indicated signs of having thin levels of ice around the edges, which is shown as a grey colour in the photographs.
These images were released days before NOAA declared that 2017 was the third warmest year on record for the globe in the 138 years of recording. 2016 and 2015 were the warmest and second warmest years on record respectively.

A heavily crevassed glacier flows west from the Dyer Plateau.  Photo: NASA / Earth Observatory

The global average temperature for last year was about 15 degrees Celsius, whereas the global average temperature in the 20th century was 1 degree lower at 14 degrees.
NASA, through different methods, said that 2017 was the second warmest year on record. NASA calculates the surface temperature whereas NOAA monitors the air and soil temperature.

A map of the featured Antarctic Peninsula. Points 4 and 5 are the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Points 10 and 11 are the area covering the Dyer Plateau and George VI Sound. Points 6 to 9 are the Cresswick Peaks.  Illustration: NASA Earth Observatory map by Joshua Stevens.

Both agencies concluded that the six warmest years on record have been in the 2010s.
NASA has scheduled another ice-mapping satellite mission for late this year.

Links

• The Great Crack-Up
• New Image from NASA Shows Antarctica's Melting Iceberg Broken Into Pieces
• Assessing the Global Climate in 2017
• 2017 was the planet's second or third hottest years on record, scientists report 
• 2017 was among the planet's hottest years on record
• Concern over climate change linked to depression, anxiety

Australia's Climate Change Policies Won't Do Enough

The Age - Editorial

Federal ministers are fond of trumpeting how Australia "punches above its weight", such as in our military commitment to Middle Eastern wars.
But when it comes to tackling climate change, this country's record is nothing to brag about.

Photo: Jessica Shapiro 

That's probably why the Turnbull government left it until just before Christmas to release the latest national greenhouse gas emissions figures and review of its climate policies.
This past week, Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg had to be pressed repeatedly to concede emissions rose in the year to last June by 0.7 per cent to 550 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
But the broader picture is even more concerning.

Buried near the back of the emissions report was a table revealing the nation's carbon pollution has risen in each of the past five years.
What will confuse many is that Australia will probably meet its pledge to cut emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 even though pollution is rising.
Thank the special treatment Australia got during the Kyoto protocol period. We were permitted to increase emissions by 8 per cent during the 2008-12 period, even as other rich nations agreed to cuts.
As actual emissions fell 128 million tonnes short of that bloated goal, Australia generated a "surplus" it is now using to count towards the 2020 goal. Five nations, including Germany and Britain, cancelled similar surpluses.
A rising pollution trajectory, though, will eventually catch up with Australia. As part of the 2015 Paris climate deal, the Turnbull government pledged to slice 2005-levels emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030, and the surplus will be long used up by then.
As Fairfax Media's Eryk Bagshaw highlighted last week, separate data released on the quiet late last year revealed Australia would overshoot the 2030 goal by at least 140 million tonnes of carbon dioxide on current growth rates.
The sole area of significant improvement has been the electricity industry, accounting for about a third of total emissions.
The 2.2 per cent year-on-year drop, though, owes much to the abrupt closure last March of Victoria's dirtiest power plant, Hazelwood, an event met with dismay by the Turnbull government.
The government's proposed national energy guarantee – still far from a shoo-in as several states and territories are wary if not publicly opposed – would lock in just a par performance for emissions reductions from the one sector almost every other country expects to lead carbon-cutting efforts.
The review of climate policies did not offer much indication how other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, will come near any 26 to 28 per cent reduction goal.
Take residential housing, for instance. The climate review is silent despite massive potential savings for occupants who happen usually to be voters.
Phil Harrington, an energy consultant with Strategy Policy Research, notes minimum energy codes for new houses were last changed in 2009 and are weak by rich-nation standards. They are unlikely to be strengthened before 2022, locking in poor performance – and higher energy bills – for decades to come.
Dodging these issues isn't a strategy.
Later this year, Australia will be pressured, along with all the other signatories to the Paris accord, to lift its climate action to give the Earth a fair chance of avoiding 2 degrees of warming.
The arc of emissions must start bending lower soon, and certainly more sharply than current policies would point it.

Links

• Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: June 2017 (pdf)
• Review of Australia’s climate change policies
• Cooking the books on climate change policy
• Turnbull Has Politicked Himself Into Irrelevance On Energy And Climate In 2018
• Why Snowy 2.0 Is A Write-Off From The Start
• Ipsos Poll: Only 18 Per Cent Think Turnbull Government Is Doing A Good Job On Climate Change
• Experts Speak Out About Australia’s Emissions Projections And Climate Policy Review

Lloyd's Of London To Divest From Coal Over Climate Change

The Guardian - Julia Kollewe

Firm follows other big UK and European insurers by excluding coal companies from 1 April

Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest insurance market, has become the latest financial firm to announce that it plans to stop investing in coal companies.
Lloyd’s will start to exclude coal from its investment strategy from 1 April. The definition of what is a coal company and the criteria for divestment will be set over the coming months.
The firm has long been vocal about the need to battle climate change, with insurance one of the worst affected industries by hurricanes, wildfires and flooding in recent years.
The insurance market decided last month to implement a coal exclusion policy as part of a responsible investment strategy for the central mutual fund that sits behind every insurance policy written by the Lloyd’s market.
Inga Beale, Lloyd’s of London chief executive, said: “That means that in the areas of our portfolio where we can directly influence investment decisions we will avoid investing in companies that are involved mainly in coal.

“Is there more the insurance sector could be doing to help the world transition to a low-carbon economy by choosing sustainable or low-carbon stocks?”
Lloyd’s does not underwrite operations directly, but offers a marketplace to almost 90 syndicates of other insurers.
Lloyd’s has been slower to take action than others. Other big UK and European insurance companies, including Aviva, Allianz, Axa, Legal & General, SCOR, Swiss Re and Zurich, have been shifting away from coal and other fossil fuels due to concerns about climate risks. About £15bn has been divested by insurers in the past two years, according to a recent report from Unfriend Coal Network, a global coalition of NGOs and campaigners including 350.org and Greenpeace. It said 15 companies – almost all in Europe – have fully or partially cut financial ties by selling holdings in coal companies and refusing to insure their operations.
France’s Axa was one of the first financial firms to reduce investments in coal in May 2015 and is still leading the way. It said last month it was ditching investments and ending insurance for controversial US oil pipelines. After being criticised by campaigners for applying a threshold of 50% of revenues to define coal companies, it lowered the threshold to 30%.
The Church of England has gone further, pulling out of investing in companies that make more than 10% of their revenues from thermal coal or oil from tar sands.
Analysis by the ClimateWise coalition of the world’s biggest insurers published in December 2016 found that more frequent extreme weather events were driving up uninsured losses and making some assets uninsurable. The report concluded that the “protection gap” – the difference between the costs of natural disasters and the amount insured – had quadrupled to $100bn (£79bn) a year since the 1980s.
Insurance companies are perhaps also mindful of the danger that they could suffer a huge loss if their investments in fossil fuel companies were rendered worthless by action on climate change, as the Bank of England warned in 2015. However, some banks are still investing in coal plants, according to research from campaign groups.
Beale told the Guardian that she would be discussing the group’s new investment strategy at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week.
Climate change and what investors can do will feature prominently at the meeting of political and business leaders. Beale said: “It goes beyond climate change. The broader issue is how we clean up the planet.”

Investment companies and organisations divesting from coal

• Allianz
• Axa
• Aviva
• BMO Global Asset Management
• Church of England
• Generali
• Legal & General
• Munich Re
• Natixis
• SCOR
• Storebrand
• Swiss Re
• Zurich

Links

• World Bank says Paris climate goals at risk from new coal schemes
• Opencast coal mine application 'called in' over climate change concerns
• Coal crash: how pension funds face huge risk from climate change
• Axa to divest from high-risk coal funds due to threat of climate change
• Lloyd's calls on insurers to take into account climate-change risk